Aftermath
by Medie Shanachie
Summary: After the events in "First Time", Lorne avoids Aiden and now she wants some answers.


_Author's Note: This is a sequel to "First Time" and therefore you should read that story before this one. I realized I sort of left it hanging at the end and that they had somethings they needed to discuss afterwards and this kept prodding at me last night until I got up at five am and wrote it (yes, I said FIVE AM)... so any lack of coherence I completely blame on that hour. Also any out of character moments I completely blame on the same thing..._

_I blame Sheppard's little apparence at the end on my co-author for two of my other stories, cuz she did it in one of ours and I found it amusing, but he didn't exactly co-operate..._

_Standard disclaimer on anything recognizable for Atlantis. I own Aiden. Bu-bye now. (Yeah...I need sleep.)_Elizabeth Weir smiled to herself when she caught sight of Aiden Bancroft striding towards her office. The young linguist looked like a woman on a mission, but that didn't stop her from pausing to chat with people she knew on her way. Elizabeth noted that her conversations were briefer than usual though and Aiden reached the office in record time. She paused outside the office door and waited for permission to enter. "Good afternoon, Aiden," Elizabeth greeted her. "What can I do for you?"

* * *

She held out a small black object that the head of Atlantis recognized as a flash drive after a moment. "I have the reports that you wanted," she explained when Elizabeth looked puzzled.

"You could have just emailed them to me. You didn't need to walk all the way up here," Elizabeth pointed out as she took possession of the drive.

Aiden sighed. "I know, but I needed to get out of my lab for a little bit and this was a good excuse."

Elizabeth frowned. Aiden wasn't given to quiet arguments. The linguist was a force of nature when she was upset and normally news of her tantrums quickly reached the upper levels. There hadn't been anything of that sort for weeks now. Then again the young lady was a mass of contradictions. She had joined the Expedition in the second year, by Daniel Jackson's recommendation. He had told Elizabeth that she had never been off-world, but that she had begged him to let her go to Atlantis because she knew she could be helpful there. Once here she had jumped at the chance to go off-world when offered and had quickly found a niche for herself on Major Lorne's team. She even seemed to have been adopted by them as part of their team even if she didn't regularly go on missions, after a somewhat rocky start. Figuring it would be easier if she just asked Aiden right out what was wrong, Elizabeth motioned for the linguist to shut the door and take a seat. "Is there a problem with your department?" she asked once the other woman was settled.

"No, ma'am," Aiden answered. "Everything's fine. We're understaffed, of course, but it's nothing we can't handle. And I really don't want to request someone because there _isn't_ anyone on Earth who has the qualifications we need."

Elizabeth nodded, pleased to hear that everything was going well there. "Is there a problem with you going off-world then? That was at your request. You can decide not to do it."

Aiden smiled. "No. I really like going off-world. I like the team and everything's fine there, too." She squirmed a little in her seat. "It's something of a more..." she paused for a moment, then continued, "personal nature."

Elizabeth sat back in her chair at a loss. "Why don't you make an appointment with Doctor Heightmeyer? That's what she's here for."

Aiden looked a little confused and then must have realized what Elizabeth was thinking. "It's not a psych problem or, well, not exactly. Or, well." She sighed and threw up her hands. "It's just personal."

"All right. Off the record now so maybe I can help you figure out whom to talk to." Elizabeth decided if she didn't know what the problem was there was no way she could help solve it. Sometimes she felt like she wasn't running a city, but something else. "What is the problem?"

"Evan," Aiden answered shortly.

Now it was Elizabeth's turn to be confused. "The problem has a name?" she asked.

Aiden grinned. "Okay, maybe that wasn't the best way to explain it. My problem is with Evan? Is that better? But it's not with the team or our professional interactions, it's our personal interaction or rather one personal interaction and now the aftermath."

Elizabeth was starting to get the picture and was also beginning to realize it was one that she was better not knowing. She knew the non-frat regs as well as anyone and while they didn't quite apply to civilians and military, she also knew two things. One if a civilian and military personal worked together they weren't supposed to get involved and two in a city this size with limited social opportunities it was bound to happen. "Aiden, it sounds like the person you need to talk to _is_ Evan."

"And therein lies the problem," Aiden explained. "He seems to be avoiding me."

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. She distinctly remembered seeing the linguist and the major eating dinner together two nights ago, but then she recalled the rest of their team was also sitting with them. Not exactly the time or the place to have a private conversation. "Well, I happen to know that Colonel Sheppard is on the mainland right now," Elizabeth said. "So Major Lorne is in his office doing paperwork and handing out disciplines to Air Force personal. He would probably welcome an interruption," she smiled, "even if he is avoiding you. Why don't you stop by the commissary, grab some coffee and a snack, and go disturb him?"

Aiden looked entirely too pleased with that prospect, but Elizabeth figured the major had brought it on himself. She got to her feet. "I think I will. Thank you, Elizabeth." She paused when she got to the door. "And I'm sorry if I put you in an awkward position."

Elizabeth sighed. "You did and you didn't, Aiden. You didn't actually admit to anything other than having a personal interaction with the major. I can read that as a friendship. Just...be careful."

Aiden nodded and, with a little wave, left the office. After swinging by the commissary and begging a carafe of coffee, two mugs, and a couple of slices of chocolate cake from the Marines on cooking duty, Aiden took the transporter down the Little Tripoli. She was down here often enough, practicing with _her_ Marines or just down here to visit, that she didn't need to ask directions to Lorne's office. A couple of the Marines stopped her as she walked, wondering what she was doing down here at this hour (she normally came down early in the morning to practice with Wall and Murray), but she placated them with a simple, "I'm visiting the major," and was able to get away.

When she entered his outer office, she found two airmen sitting in the chairs, waiting for his attention. Both straightened up when they saw her. "Afternoon, ma'am," the older of the two greeted her.

"Good afternoon, airmen," she answered, not recognizing either of them immediately, and motioned to the inner office door, which was closed. "Is he in?"

The one who had greeted her nodded. "He is, ma'am, but someone's with him."

Aiden set the container that held her diversion down next to one of the empty chairs and dropped into it. "I'll have to wait then."

The second airman eyed her with trepidation. "Are you in trouble, too, ma'am?" he asked worriedly.

The first one rolled his eyes. "Baxter, the major only hands out punishments to Air Force personnel and sometimes to Marines. The doc here's a civilian. She's on his team and probably needs to discuss team stuff with him." He turned back to Aiden. "You'll have to excuse him, ma'am. He just got here last week and he's still a Pegasus virgin." The airman's eyes widened as he realized what he had just said. "I'm so sorry, ma'am."

Aiden grinned. "Its okay, Airman. That's better than the Marine who asked me a couple of weeks ago if I'd had my Pegasus cherry popped. I've heard worse."

"She's said worse, West," Lorne said from the doorway. "That still doesn't excuse him, Doctor. West, my office. Doctor, did you need something in particular?"

Aiden turned to look at him and thought it wasn't fair that her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him, even though he had been ignoring her for over a week. He looked the same as always, militarily correct and starched, making her long to mess him up. "A few minutes of your time?" she requested and then added, hoping it would make him say yes, "Please?"

Lorne stared at her for a few minutes, as if trying to decide what she wanted. "Fine," he answered. "When I finish with West and Baxter." Without another word, he turned and went back into his office, allowing the door to slid shut.

"Well, that went well," Aiden muttered.

"Ma'am?" Baxter asked.

Aiden waved it off. "Nothing, Baxter. Nothing at all."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Baxter ventured, "What does it mean to get your Pegasus cherry popped?"

Aiden looked up from where she had been studying her hands and burst out laughing. Once she had control of herself, she explained, "It means you go off-world and get in a fight with the Wraith. You haven't learned all the lingo yet, have you?"

The young man, a boy really, Aiden could see now, shook his head. "No, ma'am. I really did just get here last week."

"And you're in trouble already?"

"No, not that I know of. The major wanted to see me to assign my duties."

"When you have time then, track down two Marines named Wall and Murray. They'll show you the ropes and they won't look down on you too much because you're a zoomie." When he looked confused, she explained, "They're the major's Marines."

Lorne's door opened again at that moment and West exited. Lorne motioned for Baxter to join him. "Thanks, ma'am," the airman said as he got to his feet.

When Lorne looked at her questioningly, she said, "I told him Wall and Murray would show him around a bit." Lorne nodded in response and disappeared into his office again.

Left alone now, Aiden hoped he wouldn't take too long with Baxter. He hadn't seemed too happy to see her, but for all she knew that was just because she was interrupting his day. With a sigh, she tried to organize what she wanted to say to him.

Aiden was so deep in thought that she missed Baxter exiting the office and didn't even hear Lorne calling her name softly. With a shake of his head, he crossed the room to her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. When she jumped and looked up at him, he said, "Hey. What're you thinking about so deeply?"

Aiden glanced around. "Are they all gone?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Come on in." As they walked into the inner office, he asked, "What did you want to see me about?"

Aiden waved at the door, which had automatically slid shut behind them. "Can you lock that?"

Lorne raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Sure." After a second, he said, "Okay, it's locked. What's going on?"

"Are you mad at me or something? Or did you just decide you don't want to be with me? Or was last week just scratching an itch? I mean what the hell, Evan? We're both adults. If all you wanted was a one night stand at least be man enough to tell me that," Aiden blurted out, then clapped her hands over her mouth. "That wasn't supposed to come out like that," she said through them.

Evan stared at her in shock. "Oookay. Clearly we have some unresolved issues." He motioned to the chairs in front of his desk. "Can we sit down and talk or would you rather do this standing?"

"You're going to talk to me?" she asked. "You're not going to run away?"

"I'm going to talk to you," he confirmed. "Cuz obviously our signals got crossed somewhere."

Tentatively she sat down in the seat closer to the door and then waited until he took the other one. She was glad he didn't go sit behind his desk. She didn't think she could have dealt with it if he had put that much space between them. She motioned to the container that she had set down when she walked in. "I brought coffee," she offered, "and cake."

"Let's leave that for now." Reaching across the short space between them, he took her hand. "This okay?" he asked. When she nodded, he rubbed her knuckles gently. "Let me say I'm sorry first. I shouldn't have just left the next morning."

"Especially considering it was your room." She squeezed his hand. "Ev, I don't know what happened, okay? All I know is we had some really mind-blowing sex and then I wake up the next morning and you're gone. No note, no kiss, no nothing. Then for a week, I see you at team stuff, but I don't see _you_, if you get my drift. You want to explain to me what's going on? I'm adult enough that if you don't want anything more than what we had, great, fine. But we need to discuss it before it causes issues for our jobs." She waved a hand, indicating the city. "Because we can't exactly avoid each other."

Evan leaned back in his chair and sighed, running his free hand through his hair, but Aiden noticed he didn't let go of her hand. "This is hard for me to admit," he said.

"It's just you and me," she told him quietly. "And I'm not going to hold anything against you. I'm not going to use it to hurt you."

"I got scared, amoureux," he admitted. "I got scared and I didn't know what to do."

"So you ran," she guessed. "Oh, Evan." Getting up, she crossed the short distance to him and put her arms around him, cradling his head against her breasts. His arms wrapped around her waist and she could feel him shaking slightly, but she knew he wasn't crying. He wouldn't do that. "I don't know who hurt you in the past, amoureux, but I am going to hunt her down one day and give her a piece of my mind." Leaning back slightly, she tipped his head up so he was looking at her. "You did _not_ hurt me, understand? I was sore because it has been quite a while since I've had sex. I enjoyed every minute of what we did and I would really, _really_ like a repeat performance."

He sighed. "It's not just that. Aiden, we're living in a war zone. I could die tomorrow, hell, today. And then where would you be?"

"And I'd rather have a lot of happy memories, than a handful of regrets. Ev, life is a gamble. You can't not live because you're afraid of dying." She considered what she said. "Did that make sense?"

"I must be spending too much time with you because, yes, it did." He ran gentle hands up her back. "So what do you want to do?"

"That's a dangerous question, Major Lorne," she replied with a wicked grin. "Are you sure you want to ask that?"

"Aiden," he warned, "we're in my office. In the middle of a battalion of Marines."

She nodded, reaching for the zipper on his jacket. "Yup, we are. And the door is locked." Toying with the zipper, she looked down at him. "Are we going to try this? Are you willing to try to have a relationship with me?"

Evan grinned up at her. "Aiden, did you just ask me to go steady?"

She smacked his shoulder. "We are _not_ in high school, bub."

"Seriously though. Yes, I want to try this. I've been miserable this past week without seeing you except with the team. And the boys told me you've been unhappy, too. I'm sorry for that, too."

Aiden slowly slid the zipper down on his jacket. "You could make me really happy right now," she whispered suggestively as she leaned closer.

"Aiden. Office. Decorum," he protested.

"Evan. Door. Locked," she responded, finally succeeding in getting the zipper all the way down. She eased the jacket off his shoulders as she touched her lips to his. He capitulated as they connected and opened his mouth under hers, allowing her to slip her tongue inside. Both groaned at the connection. His hands moved from her back around and fumbled until they found the zipper for her jacket, brushing her breasts on the way and drawing another groan from her. Hurriedly he unzipped hers and she shucked it off, then he leaned forward so she could get his the rest of the way off. Grabbing her hips, he guided her into his lap.

For once glad her hair was braided back out of the way, he broke off the kiss to work his way around to her ear and whisper, "Where are you supposed to be right now?"

"No where," she answered, then moaned as he pressed a kiss to her collarbone and then sucked lightly. "I'm finished with everything for today, but Elizabeth knows I was coming to see you."

"Why?" he asked, moving away from the spot since he was way too tempted to leave a mark there. He began to untuck her shirt, figuring he could put a mark lower down.

"She wanted to know...oh, goddess, that feels good, Evan," she said as his hands made their way up under her shirt to her breasts. She stopped talking and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Wanted to know," he prompted, moving his hands away.

"Don't stop!" she objected. "She wanted to know why I was bringing my reports up instead of emailing them. I told her I needed to get out of the lab and that I was having a personal problem. She suggested I talk to you." Aiden arched towards him, trying to encourage him to put his hands back. "Evan, please."

He moved his hands around to her back, feeling for the clasp since she didn't appear to be wearing a sports bra today. "Shirt off, amoureux," he whispered and she hurried to comply. When her t-shirt landed on the floor, he was surprised to discover she wore a red lace bra. "Did you plan to come see me today?" he asked as he succeeded in unhooking it and slipped it off her body. He spared it a glance, making a mental note to ask her later to wear it again, before tossing it on top of her shirt and bending his head to take one of her nipples into his mouth.

Aiden arched into him, moaning in a mixture of French and English. "No," she answered, when she was coherent again, "I wanted to feel good for myself today."

He pulled away to remove his own shirt and tell her, "I liked it. For the two seconds I saw it on you."

Aiden grinned as she ran her hands over his bare chest. "That's good." Snuggling in closer, she pressed herself against him and nipped at his lip. "I love how hot your body is. You're like a furnace." Running her hands into his hair, she tilted his head up and captured his lips, kissing him deeply.

They were so wrapped up in each other that neither of them heard the door slide open. It was the voice that broke through their concentration, "I'm thinking I have _really_ bad timing."

Years of training had Evan trying to snap to attention at the sound of his CO's voice, but Aiden's legs were wrapped around his waist and through the chair arms so there was no where for him to go. "Sir!" he yelped. "I..."

Sheppard looked at his XO, who was clearly out of uniform, and the linguist, who wasn't any better, although thankfully all he could see of her was a bare back, and said, "I don't want to know. In fact, we're all going to pretend I didn't override your lock. I didn't see anything." He turned to go. "Glad you two made up. I was getting tired of your sad faces and getting ready to have McKay lock you in a transporter."

Aiden took her head out of the crook of Evan's neck, where she had buried it, after she was sure Sheppard was gone. "That was _almost_ worse than my dad walking in on me," she said.

"I have to face him in a meeting tomorrow," Evan pointed out.

"I think he meant what he said, Ev." She leaned back slightly so she could see him. "I guess this wasn't such a good idea."

He helped her unhook her legs and slide off his lap. "The idea was good. It was the location that sucked. How about dinner tonight? Just the two of us? No team and then dessert in my quarters or yours?"

Aiden grinned as he handed her the clothes he had removed. "I think it depends on what type of dessert you're talking about."

* * *

_amoureux--sweetheart_


End file.
